Written by Whitney Eakin, PT, DPT, ATC
Having time off during the holiday season to spend with friends and family can be difficult for healthcare professionals since healthcare is an essential business that must go on despite what day it is. Hospitals and nursing homes don’t close for holidays, and the patients that we care for at those facilities still need us.
As traveling healthcare professionals, we may sometimes be able to have more control over our schedules and be able to plan for time off, but that isn’t always the case. And, whether we have to work or not, it may also be difficult to see family and friends depending what part of the country we’re in.
We here at Travel Therapy Mentor wanted to let you know what the holiday season looks like for us this year and in years past, as many of you can probably relate!
Travis and Julia
Travel therapy mentor Travis and his fiancee Julia, both physical therapists, will be spending this Christmas with Julia’s family in Arizona. They are fortunate to both have Christmas day off this year, with Julia working in outpatient and Travis at a Skilled Nursing Facility. However, they both had work on Christmas Eve (Monday) and will have to work the rest of the week after Christmas.
This Winter, they chose to arrange contracts independently (not through a travel company) near Phoenix, AZ which is where they currently call home and plan to return PRN to these locations in the future. So they are not on what we might call a “traditional” travel assignment currently. But, this arrangement worked well for them for the next several months, and it also allowed them to be near Julia’s family this holiday season while still continuing to work. They will not however get to see Travis’s parents who will be in Alabama this Christmas.
In years past, the two have not always spent the holidays with family due to traveling for work. Last year, they spent Christmas together in South Carolina and made their own holiday dinner in their camper. They have been fortunate to never have to work (so far) on Christmas Day.
Travis and Julia are embracing the travel healthcare life, even if it means ever changing holiday traditions.
Whitney and Jared
Jared and I have had quite the unusual year and a very non-traditional schedule! We worked a travel physical therapy contract from January-July 2018, then we took off around the world for 5 months! We just returned to the U.S. on December 17th! We planned to continue to be off work until after the New Year so we could spend quality time with both of our families in Virginia for the holidays.
We are very fortunate to have a job that allows such flexibility, as long as you plan and save wisely. The only downside to our plan is that we have found it challenging to find jobs that start just after the New Year. Many travel therapists have similar plans, to finish up a contract before the holidays in order to be with family, then resume work after January 1st. In addition, many facilities have already secured therapists to work through the holidays and into January. This combination of factors has made jobs for January scarce. So as of now, we are unemployed indefinitely until we can find contracts to begin sometime in January. But we are fortunate that we have saved a significant amount, so a few extra weeks off work (on top of already 5 months off!) won’t bother us.
In years past, we have secured jobs in December that carried over through the new year, while asking for time off for the holidays as able. We have worked on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Eve before, but we’ve always managed to make it home to Virginia for Christmas Day, whether we asked off or the facility was closed. So far we’ve always been working in Virginia or North Carolina within driving distance of home during the holidays, and that has worked out well for us.
Being a travel therapist around the holidays can sometimes make it easier to be able to see family, but it can sometimes make it more challenging!
Our hearts go out to those of you working the holidays this year, those spending the holidays geographically far away family, and to the patients who would love to be home with family as well!